Engineering researchers at four U.S. universities are embarking on a four-year project to design a prosthetic arm that amputees can control directly with their brains and that will allow them to feel what they touch. While it may sound like science fiction, the researchers say much of the technology has already been proven in small-scale demonstrations.

The research at Rice University, the University of Michigan, Drexel University and the University of Maryland is made possible by a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation's Human-Centered Computing program.

While optical and magnetic motion capture are powerful tools used in the MAHI Lab to investigate anatomical motion, there are limitations, in particular, for wearable devices for the hand. Adding to work on open-source designs started in the ReNeu Lab at University of Texas at Austin, an instrumented finger has been developed. This modular finger is compatible with soft or semi-soft hand devices such as the Assistive Glove Exoskeleton, with anthopometric sizing of links and joints.

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Rigid haptic devices enable humans to physically interact with virtual environments, and the range of impedances that can be safely rendered using these rigid devices is quantified by the Z-Width metric. Series elastic actuators (SEAs) similarly modulate the impedance felt by the human operator when interacting with a robotic device, and, in particular, the robot's perceived stiffness can be controlled by changing the elastic element's equilibrium position.

Robots are increasingly designed to physically interact with humans in unstructured environments, and as such must operate both accurately and safely. Leveraging compliant actuation, typically in the form of series elastic actuators (SEAs), can guarantee this required level of safety. To date, a number of frequency domain techniques have been proposed which yield effective SEA torque and impedance control; however, these methods are accompanied by undesirable stability constraints.

Through the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in conjunction with a haptic device, it is possible to study changes in brain activity while a patient undergoes rehabilitation-like protocols. By measuring changes in brain activity of a patient undergoing neurorehabilitation during fMRI, optimal patient-specific therapy regimens might be obtained. This research aims to develop, characterize, and control a parallel three degrees of freedom magnetic resonance (MR) compatible haptic device, called the MR-SoftWrist, which can measure and support wrist movements during fMRI.

Interfaces and strategies for the teleoperation of bipedal humanoid robots, which otherwise hold great potential in industrial, space exploration, and military application, are currently under-researched.